Plastic cigarette lighter casing



Feb. 14, 1967 M. QUERCIA PLASTIC CIGARETTE LIGHTER CASING 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed July 21, 1964 Feb. 14, 1967 M. QUERCIA PLASTIC CIGARETTE LIGHTER CASING 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 21, 1964 NVENTR Marce( 62u rc .Q

United States Patent O 942,696 8 Claims. (Cl. 67-7.1)

This invention relates to cigarette lighters, and particu,- larly to casings therefor.

Currently available cigarette lighters, be they of the liquid-fueled or gas-fueled types, all have in common that they are constructed almost entirely of metal or, occasionally, of some material which is more expensive and more difficult to shape than metal. Although metals have been found to be well suited for such purpose, they are still expensive to work with since -a considerable number of operations are required to form the casing, to machine the recesses for the various lighter components, and to linish the outer surface of the casing.

It is therefore an object of this invention to eliminate the above-noted shortcomings.

Another object of the present invention is to greatly facilitate the manufacture of cigarette lighter casings.

A further object herein is to drastically reduce the cost of cigarette lighters.

Still another object of the invention is to produce cornpletely finished cigarette lighter casings, having internal recesses formed therein for the various lighter elements, by a sim-ple and inexpensive process.

The present invention involves several features which, while they are preferably combined to produce a device having all of the advantages disclosed herein, may be ernployed separately or in combinations of less than all of them. The principal features of this invention, briefly, consist in that:

The lighter casing is made of two pieces of plastic joined, for example, along a plane parallel to the widest transverse dimension of the lighter, the two parts being held together by means of a -displace-able clip element which at the same time serves as the casing portion which surrounds the burner element; and

The casing comprises various housings and recesses for the delivery of gas to the burner and for the lighting of this gas, all of these areas having been formed in the casing during the molding of the pieces.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is a partly cross-sectional side View of a preferred embodiment of a lighter of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top View of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane III-III of FIG. l.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional View taken -along the plane IV-IV of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane V-V of FIG. l; and

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional View of the embodiment of FIG. l, but with the element 1 removed, taken along the plane VI-VI.

In accordance with the present invention, the cigarette lighter essentialy comprises a plastic casing made by injection molding to serve as a housing and support for a removable gas supply, gas. supply valve actuating means, gas Conduit means, and the gas igniting elements.

Since all of the figures illustrate the same device, it should be understood that a reference to an element in one figure is intended as a reference to the same element in each of the figures in which it appears.

Turning now to FIG. l, the lighter comprises a casing made of two substantially symmetrical halves of molded plastic 2, 3 hinged together in a bivalvular manner so that when the casing is closed, the joint Ibetween them takes the form of a peripheral seam extending around the edge of the casing. The .halves 2, 3 are held together by a removable metal clip 4 which serves as the locking element for the casing and as the portion of the casing surface in vicinity of the gas'burner 7. Clip 4 has an opening 9 formed therein in line with burner 7 to permit the flame to pass to the exterior and to prevent this flame from coming in contact with the plastic of the main portion of the casing.

The two casing halves are hingedly fastened to one another along one edge by a hin-ge 6, this edge being preferably along the bottom of the casing and as far removed as possible from the place where clip 4 is attached. The hinge portion on each casing half is integral with the casing, having been formed by the original molding operation as to have `a common hinge-pin receiving bore (FIG. 6) into which a suitable pin is inserted in order to hold the two casing halves together.

With such `an arrangement, it is only necessary to move clip 4 aside in order to open the casing so as to have access to the gas supply as well as to the spark producing elements.

According to one form of construction of the locking element `4, it is made in the form of a corner cap and is pivotally connected at 5 to a portion of casing half 3. For this purpose, a small portion of the part 3 is made to extend completely across the width of the casing so as to pivotally support cap 4 by means of axis S. Casing half 2 is cut-away, as at 2a, in order to accommodate this transverse projection of element 3 and in order to be held by cap 4 when it is in its locking position (FIGS. 1, 2 and 6) and free of cap 4 when it is in its lopen position (dotted lines in FIG. l, and in FIG. 3). Casing halves 2 and 3 comprise recessed regions in the vicinity of cap 4 which enable the outer surface of the latter, when in its closed position, to be flush with the surface of elements 2 and 3 adjacent thereto.

A large portion of the interior of the casing is in the form of a cavity within which is housed gas supply 1. The inner wall of casing element 3 has a projection 11 (FIGS. 5 and 6) molded thereon to serve asa linger which bears against gas supply valve actuator 16 so that when the latter is urged toward casing half 3, actuator 16 will be depressed, permitting gas to be released into the region enclosed by connection 10. Connection 10 is in the form of a cup of elastically deformable material, such as rubber, which has a closed end bearing against the inner surface of casing element 3 and which is held in place by finger 11. The open end of connection 10 seats around actuator 16 and isolates the gas outlet, which surrounds actuator 16, from the region outside connection 10 but permits the gas flowing out of reservoir 1 to pass along a canal 12 (FIG. 6), arranged in the surface of linger 11, and a channel 13 arranged on the inner surface of casing element 3 and communicating between canal 12 and a burner supply cavity 14 lalso arranged on the inner surface of element 3. An adhesive band 15 is placed on the inner surface of element 3 so as to close channel 13 and cavity 14, the band having a circular opening which permits it to t around connection 10, in order to create an impermeable conduit from the outlet of gas supply 1 to cavity 14. Cavity 14 is joined to a bore 8 into which is force-fitted the burner tube 7. Bore 8, as well as channel 13, canal 12 and cavity 14, is formed in element 3 at the time of the original molding operation.

Gas reservoir 1 is of the standard, commercially available, lighter-refill type and is placed in the suitably arranged cavity formed between casing halves 2 and 3 so as to have its actuator 16 .placed opposite finger 11. When the lighter is not in use, as shown in FIG. 5, connection is in its undeformed state and maintains actuator 16 out of contact with nger 11. When it is desired to obtain a gas flow, the reservoir is urged towards nger 11, by means which will be described below, creating a seal between connection 10 and reservoir 1 and forcing the finger against actuator 16, thus permitting gas to escape from the reservoir into canal 12, channel 13, cavity 14, and finally bore 8, where it will pass through burner 7 `and there be ignited by means which will be described in detail below.

The gas escaping from burner 7 is ignited by sparks produced by the rubbing of a striker wheel 17, preferably of steel, against a suitable piece of flint 18 (FIG. 4), which is produced by rotating, with the finger, a knurled driving wheel 19 which is rotatably connected to wheel 17 by means of shaft 36. The shaft may be keyed to both wheels so as to cause them to rotate in unison. Casing halves 2 and 3 have suitable cavities molded therein to receive wheels 17 and 19 and half 2 has a hole 35 originating in surface 2a and extending perpendicularly to that surface and coaxially with the cavities for wheels 17 and 19 to a point sufficiently below the lower cavity to give the lower end of shaft 36 an adequate bearing surface. Hole 35 and the cavities for wheels 17 and 19 can be formed in the casing halves at the time of their molding, thus avoiding the necessity for later machining operations.

To assemble the above system one vneed only insert the wheels in their respective cavities and slide shaft 36 through hole 35 and the aligned wheel bores. Shaft 36 may then be maintained in place by the overhang of casing half 3 (FIG. 3) over surface 2a.

The spark required to light the gas coming out of burner 7 is produced by the spinning of the above-described wheel 17 against a suitable flint 18 which is held against wheel 17 in bore 28 (FIGS. 3, 4 and 6) by means which constitute :another novel feature of the present invention and which, due to their simplicity and the ease with which they permit the insertion of a new flint, represent a significant improvement over the prior art systems. These means comprise a suitable spring 29 which holds int 18 against wheel 17 and which is in turn held in position by a guide pin 32 having a large fiat head which extend at right angles to the main body portion. These flange elements serve to add rigidity to the lever and as the means for pivoting the lever on pin 5. For this latter purpose, elements 25 and 26 are pierced with appropriately located holes for the passage of pin 5. The main portion of lever extends along substantially the entire upper edge of the lighter casing, which edge is adjacent to, and perpendicular to, the edge from which the side of wheel 19 extends. This arrangement facilitates the use of the lighter because it enables the user to easily depress lever 20 and spin wheel 19 with one hand.

The free end of lever 20 extends downward into the casing, the two casing halves 2 and 3 being formed so as to present a suitable opening therefor (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The end of rim element 25 associated with the free end of the lever extends downward beyond the end of the main body of the lever so as to form a camming surface 22 (see FIGS. 1, 4 and 5) whose lower portion bears against the face of reservoir 1 disposed opposite 33 which rests against an abutment 30 projecting from Y casing half 2. This casing half is also formed with a cavity adjacent abutment 30, this cavity permitting head 33 to be so positioned that pin 32 will be aligned with bore 28. Pin 32 is disposed within the turns of spring 29 and is sufficiently long that when head 33 is bearing against abutment 30, the forward end of the pin extends well into bore 28. This arrangement prevents any possibility of the accidental dislodgement of spring 29 or int 18.

In order to replace va flint, it is only necessary to move head 33 laterally out of engagement with abutment 3,0, the dimensions of pin 32 being sufficiently small to present a degree of play permitting this movement, and to pull pin 32 and spring 29 out of bore 28. The worn flint will then fall out, a new flint will be reinserted, spring 29 and pin 32 will be reinserted in bore 28 and head 33 will be returned to its abutting position against part 30. Thus, all of the tedious and delicate spring aligning and screw tightening operations required in prior art devices are eliminated.

Bore 28, abutment 30 and t-he cavity for head 30 are all molded in casing 2 at the time of its fabrication. Y

The means for moving reservoir 1 towards casing half 3, so as to cause actuator 16 to be depressed by pin 11, comprise a manually operated lever 20 having a main body portion and a pair of flange elements 25 and 26 the face containing actuator 16.

Camming surface 22 is directed so as to be oblique to the path of travel of the free end of lever 20, which path of t-ravel lies in a plane perpendicular to pin 5. With thi-s arrangement, depression of lever 20 will cause camming surface 22 to move reservoir 1 towards casing half 3, causing the edge of connection 10 to isolate the region around actuator 16, finger 11 to depress actuator 16, and gas to flow from reservoir 1 to burner 7.

In order to insure that the reaction force experienced by camming surface 22 does not deflect the free end of lever 20 in a direction transverse to its normal direction of travel, the other ange element 26 of the lever is formed with a tab 23 (see FIGS. 1, 4 and 5) lying in a plane parallel to the normal path of travel of the lever and lslidably disposed in a suitable groove 24 arranged in casing half 3. As is true of the other irregularities formed in casing halves 2 and 3 for various purposes, groove'24 is formed by the same molding operation which produces casing half 3.

Finally, a coiled hinge spring 21 is provided around pin 5, the spring having one radially extending arm bearing against casing half 3 (see FIG. 1) and the other radially extending arm bearing .against the lower surface of lever 20 to ensure the return of the lever to its normal rest position, yas shown in FIG. 1, when it is released by the user. When lever 20 is depressed, the rotation of the radial arm of spring 21 associated therewith places the spring under a tension so that, upon release of the lever, the spring will urge lever 20 upward until it reaches its rest position, which position is determined by the abutment of la rearwardly extending lip of the lever, in the vicinity of tub 23 (the lip is not numbered but is clearly visible in FIG. 1) against a bearing surface formed on casing half 2.

While one preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described herein, it should be understood that many variations and modifications would occur to one skilled in t-he art without departing from the spirit of said invention and that its coverage should therefore be limited only by the scope of the attached claims.

What I claim is: Y

1. A cigarette lighter comprising, in combination, a hollow casing having two molded plastic complementary parts hinged together along an edge portion thereof and forming a common seam substantially along a plane perpendicular to the Smallest dimension of said casing; displaceable fire resistant clip means shaped to conform to the configuration of a'portion of said casing to opposite sides of said seam and spaced from said edge portion, said clip means being arranged over said portion of said casing in order to hold said two parts in abutment with one another; and burner means located in said casing in the region covered by said clip means, said clip means having an opening aligned with said burner means.

s0 that a ame produced on said burner means may pass through said opening while said plastic casing is protected by said clip means from the heat developed by the ame.

2. A cigarette lighter is recited in claim 1, wherein said portion of said casing over which said clip means is placed forms a corner of said casing opposite said edge portion thereof.

3. A cigarette lighter as recited in claim 1 wherein One of said molded plastic parts is formed with a bore and a pair of cavities concentric therewith, said lighter comprising further: spark striking wheel means disposed in one of said cavities; driving wheel means disposed in the other of said cavities; and shaft means rotatably disposed in said bore and rigidly connecting said two wheels for rotation together.

4. A device as recited in claim 3 wherein said one of said molded plastic parts is further formed with a second bore perpendicular to said first bore and extending between said one of said cavities and the interior of said casing, and with an abutment having a bearing surface perpendicular to the axis of said second bore and spaced a first distance away from that end of said second bore which terminates in the interior of said casing; said cigarette lighter further comprising: flint means disposed in said second bore and in bearing relation with the edge of said spark striking wheel; coil spring means disposed in said second bore and bearing against said flint means; and fastening pin means extending along the interior of said coil spring and abutting against said bearing surface of said abutment, the length of said pin means being greater than said rst distance.

5. A cigarette lighter comprising a casing, a fuel supply element movably arranged in said casing and having a fuel release device which permits fuel to be released when said last-named device is mechanically depressed, and: lever means pivotally mounted on said casing for rotation along a predetermined path, said lever means extending into the interior of said casing and terminating in a camming surface which is designed to lbear against said fuel supply element and which is oblique to said path of travel, in such la manner that rotation of said lever causes said fuel supply element to be moved by said camming surface in a direction having a component prependicular to said path of travel of said lever, causing said fuel release device to be depressed by a portion of said casing.

6. A cigarette lighter comprising, in combination, a hollow casing having two complementary parts hinged together along an edge portion thereof and forming a common seam; displaceable fire resistant clip means removably arranged `over a portion of said casing to opposite sides of said seam and spaced from said edge portion to hold said two parts in abutment with one another; and burner means located in said casing in the region covered by said clip means, said clip means having an opening aligned with said burner means so that a flame produced on said burner means may pass through said opening while said casing is protected by said clip means from the heat developed by the ame.

7. A cigarette lighter according to claim 6, wherein said two complementary parts of said casing consist of plastic non re resistant material.

8. A cigarette lighter according to claim 6, wherein said two complementary parts form along said common seam an opening located between said opening in said clip means and said burner means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,191,172 7/1916 Fuller 292-54 1,623,595 4/1927 Hiering 292-209 1,937,080 11/1928 Bilde 67-7.1 2,780,085 2/1957 Perlin 67-7.1 3,134,504 5/1964 Quercia 67-7.1

EDWARD J. MICHAEL, Primary Examiner. 

1. A CIGARETTE LIGHTER COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A HOLLOW CASING HAVING TWO MOLDED PLASTIC COMPLEMENTARY PARTS HINGED TOGETHER ALONG AN EDGE PORTION THEREOF AND FORMING A COMMON SEAM SUBSTANTIALLY ALONG A PLANE PERPENDICULAR TO THE SMALLEST DIMENSION OF SAID CASING; DISPLACEABLE FIRE RESISTANT CLIP MEANS SHAPED TO CONFORM TO THE CONFIGURATION OF A PORTION OF SAID CASING TO OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID SEAM AND SPACED FROM SAID EDGE PORTION, SAID CLIP MEANS BEING ARRANGED OVER SAID PORTION OF SAID CASING IN ORDER TO HOLD SAID TWO PARTS IN ABUTMENT WITH ONE ANOTHER; AND BURNER MEANS LOCATED IN SAID CASING IN THE REGION COVERED BY SAID CLIP MEANS, SAID CLIP MEANS HAVING AN OPENING ALIGNED WITH SAID BURNER MEANS SO THAT A FLAME PRODUCED ON SAID BURNER MEANS MAY PASS THROUGH SAID OPENING WHILE SAID PLASTIC CASING IS PROTECTED BY SAID CLIP MEANS FROM THE HEAT DEVELOPED BY THE FLAME. 